Howard has a date picked out; Polly new NL leader

Posted by Mandy Housenick | August 18, 2010 at 06:12 PM

There’s finally a date looming out there.

Firstbaseman Ryan Howard, on the DL nursing a sprained left ankle, said that if he goes out on a rehab assignment this weekend (keep in mind, the Triple-A IronPigs are home starting Saturday), he could return to the Phillies on Monday.

“We’ll see what happens,” Howard said. “If I can get out of here this weekend, I’ll try to be back by then.

“I wish I was back already. But I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Howard did some new sprints on Wednesday---suicide shuffles, in addition to taking batting practice and infield practice.

“I can do everything, it’s just the swelling and there’s still some soreness. It’s just kind of flushing that out, and I think over time that’s going to continue to go out,” he said.

POLANCO NEWS

On Tuesday, third baseman Placido Polanco officially took over as the National League’s batting leader with a .325 batting average.

Polanco didn’t want to talk about it, but Northampton graduate Brian Schneider said there’s some added excitement now in the clubhouse.

“You want any teammate to win any award,” Schneider said. “Everyone knows this is not an individual sport, but individual awards are part of baseball. Someone’s gotta win the batting title. Someone’s gotta win HRs. Obviously, we’re part of a bigger picture and so is Polly, but it would be an unbelievable accomplishment for him. The guy works hard and he’s a heck of a hitter. You’ll see no one else cheer harder for him than those of us in this clubhouse. He represents our organization. That’s the Phillies’ Polanco.”

A Phillie hasn’t won the batting title since Richie Ashburn did in 1958.

For more on this topic, be sure to check out my notebook in tomorrow’s paper or on-line.